


Liability

by buoyantsaturn



Series: Prompts [10]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Based on a Tumblr Post, Character Death, Headcanon prompt, M/M, i bet you can guess who dies, it seems like it's gonna be fluffy at the beginning and then it's not, will eats a pomegranate seed and this is the aftermath
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-06-28 03:37:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15699369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: Nico found him, only minutes later, with pomegranate juice staining his fingers. He’d run up to his boyfriend in a panic, swatting the fruit out of his hands and prying his mouth open, demanding, “What did you do? Did you eat any? How much did you eat, Will?”“One seed,” Will replied. “That’s not too bad, right? One seed won’t kill me.”its this headcanon list but as a fic





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> happy solangelo week!! this is part one of this fic for the prompt "aged up/10 years later" and part two will be coming at the end of the week ((hopefully i'll get it finished in time)) and it will fit the prompt "marriage/engagement" so i'm sure you can see where this'll be going. i hope you like it!!
> 
> as always with a prompt fic, this fic is named after liability by lorde

Essentially, Hades gave Nico an allowance for doing his chores. His chores usually consisted of settling disputes between the minor Underworld gods or trapping monsters that had somehow gotten loose in Elysium. His allowance fluctuated based on how long the task took, though no matter how much Nico was given, he always spent the money on one thing: spoiling his boyfriend. As a sixteen year old, Nico didn’t really need the money for much else. 

It was date night for the two teens, but Nico had forgotten to collect his allowance until after he’d already sneaked Will out of camp. He couldn’t just abandon him in the city, right? So he brought Will to the Underworld with him, hiding him away in Persephone’s garden before rushing into the palace to collect from his father. 

Will, of course, smart boy that he was, knew better than to eat anything in the Underworld - especially not one of Persephone’s pomegranates. However, he’d been saving room for a fancy dinner all day, and those pomegranates sure looked tasty. And, of course, when temptation strikes, there are always ghosts and demons nearby to egg you on.

Nico found him, only minutes later, with pomegranate juice staining his fingers. He’d run up to his boyfriend in a panic, swatting the fruit out of his hands and prying his mouth open, demanding, “What did you do? Did you eat any? How much did you eat, Will?”

“One seed,” Will replied. “That’s not too bad, right? One seed won’t kill me.”

Nico took Will’s face in his hands, pressing their foreheads together and taking a calming breath that didn’t help much at all, before straightening back up. He offered his hand to Will with a “Come with me,” and he dragged Will into the palace.

“I thought we were avoiding the palace on purpose,” Will said.

“That was back when I thought you had a chance of leaving again,” Nico said back to him. They entered the throne room, and when Nico stopped in front of his father, he heard Hades sigh.

“Welcome to your new home, son of Apollo,” Hades greeted. “Your siblings never were the smartest, were they?”

Will frowned. “Hey--”

Nico hit him in the chest and pushed him back. “Father, can’t you make an exception?”

“And why would I do that?” Hades asked. “I’ve never done that for anyone in the past.”

“You did for your wife,” Nico reminded him. “This is my boyfriend. Make an exception for him. For me.”

“Ah, but Demeter is much more threatening than you, my boy.”

“Yeah, but you and I both know that you like me  _ way _ better than you like her. And you keep telling me that you want me to be happy. You want me to be  _ an exception. _ Will makes me happy. Make an exception.”

Hades grumbled at having his own words thrown back at him. He turned his gaze to Will. “How much did you eat?”

“Just one seed, sir,” Will answered.

“Fine,” Hades told them. “I will offer you the same chance that I gave to my wife. One seed will equate one month of punishment, so for one month out of every year, you must live in the Underworld.”

Nico sighed, and Will saw the tension melt from his shoulders. “Thank you, Father. We’ll be leaving, then.”

 

* * *

 

Will had chosen January as his one month to spend in the Underworld that year. Nico had helped him back a bag and then shadow traveled the two of them into the palace where Hades greeted them. 

“Hello again, son of Apollo,” Hades said. “While I am not particularly happy to have another guest in the palace, I suppose that I am happy to be able to see my son a bit more often. I  _ will _ be seeing you more often, right, my son?”

“Yes, Father,” Nico said with a roll of his eyes.

“And I hope you don’t have any plans for your birthday, seeing as your  _ boyfriend _ wouldn’t be able to join you for any activities on the surface anyway.”

“Your birthday?” Will asked. “Your birthday’s in January?”

Nico groaned. “Thanks, Dad, I didn’t tell him on  _ purpose. _ Not everybody likes their birthday, you know.” He grabbed Will’s hand and tugged him in the direction of his room. “C’mon, Will.”

“You’ll be joining Persephone and myself for dinner this evening!” Hades called after them.

“No thanks!” Nico shouted back.

“My palace, my rules! You wouldn’t want me to keep your boyfriend here forever, would you?”

Will glanced at Nico with fear in his eyes, and Nico groaned again.

“Fine!”

 

Family dinners were always awkward, but they were more so when your boyfriend was supposed to be dead and your father was probably looking for any opportunity to finish the job. Also when your father was the god of death. And when your step mother wouldn’t stop talking about the time she’d temporarily turned you into a flower. (Will had seemed to enjoy that story, at least.)

Fortunately, Will’s time in the Underworld seemed to go by rather quickly - as usual, seeing as there really was no sense of time in the palace. Will had spent time gardening with Persephone, which he’d enjoyed, and Nico had run plenty of errands for his father to earn plenty of spending money for when he and Will were both back on the surface. 

They’d endured another torturous family dinner on Nico’s birthday, before they’d retired to Nico’s room for the night - they’d both been sleeping in Nico’s room. What was the point of preparing another room when they prefered to share, anyway?

They’d collapsed on the bed together, Nico on top of Will and straddling his waist. They’d started making out, and eventually Nico had pulled away to say, “I know I said I don’t like my birthday, and I don’t really like getting gifts, but I can think of something I wouldn’t mind you giving to me.” He winked at the end of his thought, and Will shoved at his chest.

“I’m not  _ having sex in Hell _ with you!” Will shouted.

Nico pouted. “You’ll still make out with me in Hell, right?”

 

* * *

 

The stench of death usually clung to Nico for a few days after his return to the surface, though after a week the smell remained. Not on him, as far as he could tell, but somewhere near him, constantly. 

He and Will had just returned from Will’s third one-month in the Underworld. Will had been practically dead to the world for most of that week, sleeping all day and all night, only waking to eat before slipping back into the Hades cabin and passing out on Nico’s bed. 

He went back to normal not long after, being his usual sunny self, and Nico almost let himself forget about the slowly fading sense of death that still clung to Will even months later. 

One night, once Nico was sure that Will was asleep with no chance of waking up until morning - he used to be a light sleeper, but after spending so much time in the Underworld, he’d started sleeping like the dead - Nico sneaked out of bed and went into the bathroom. He turned on the shower and let the mist off the water create a rainbow which he used to call his father. 

“Nico,” Hades greeted. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

“I’m worried about Will,” Nico told him, and when Hades gave him a blank look, Nico rolled his eyes. “My boyfriend? The blond son of Apollo who’s been crashing in Hell for one month every year?”

“Ah, yes,” Hades muttered. “Why should I care?”

“Because you’re my dad, and if you want to be a good dad then you should listen to me and care about my problems.” Hades hummed noncommittally, so Nico continued. “I think he’s dying. Really slowly, but still a lot faster than he should be. I think it’s because he’s spending too much time in the Underworld. I know we had a deal that he would stay for a month every year, but we need to renegotiate. If he keeps doing this then he’s going to die before he’s thirty.”

“I don’t see how this is my problem,” Hades replied.

“It’s your problem because it’s  _ my _ problem!” Nico shouted, and winced when he remembered Will sleeping in the other room. He took a second to breathe and calm himself down before he continued, quieter, “Please. Let me renegotiate.”

“This isn’t your negotiation,” Hades told him. “The boy made a mistake, and now he has to pay for what he’s done. Apollo boys are supposed to be more intelligent than their father, you know that, right? It amazes me that you seem to have found the acception.”

Nico grit his teeth and growled before swiping a hand through the shower steam, cutting off the connection. He shut the water off, hitting the light before opening the door so that the light wouldn’t pour out and wake Will - though Nico was sure that even a thunderstorm couldn’t wake him in his state, and Will  _ hated  _ thunderstorms. 

Carefully and quietly, Nico slipped under the covers and back into bed with his boyfriend, snuggling up close and trying to relax. 

He couldn’t think of what else to do as the faint smell of death slowly surrounded him, knowing that his father would no longer be of any help, and that Persephone surely didn’t have any power over the situation.

He let his eyes slip shut and he sent a silent prayer to Apollo. A prayer for health and healing, that he would be a good father and save his son.

Nico fell asleep somewhere around the eighth repetition of his prayer. 

 

* * *

 

When they became too old to live at camp any longer, Will and Nico moved into a New York apartment. The money Nico received from his father no longer went towards paying for dates and fancy gifts for his boyfriend, but for rent and groceries and other expenses. 

Will had started taking classes at NYU as soon as he was accepted, though this meant that his one month stay in the Underworld had to be moved from January to July so that it wouldn’t interfere with his classes. 

Nico noticed the problem after the first few days of Will’s first July in the Underworld. He had already grown so very pale since arriving, and the lack of sunlight at a time where Will had used to spend days laying out in the grass and absorbing its rays had clearly started to do some damage. 

He’d bounced back quicker that before with the hot August sun rather than the usual February clouds, but the dark circles didn’t fade from under his eyes. Even some of Will’s new classmates-turned-friends had started to notice that something was wrong, asking Will if he’d gotten sick on “vacation” where they’d said they’d gone, or even stating that Will looked like he’d been hit by a truck. 

Over the next year, Nico continued attempting to renegotiate with his father behind Will’s back, though nothing seemed to change besides Will’s steadily growing exhaustion. It amazed Nico how much he was able to sleep and how little he would eat, yet he could still make it to every class and lab and discussion group and get A’s on all of his papers and projects and other assignments. 

It wasn’t until the next July in the Underworld where Nico had left Will with a stack of books to prepare him for the upcoming semester for about two days as he ran a few errands for his father, that Nico finally saw his boyfriend starting to slip. Will barely seemed to have moved from his spot at his desk, except to eat about half of one of Persephone’s pomegranates, from what Nico could tell when he returned. 

He checked Will over like he usually did when Will started to turn lifeless in the Underworld, and moved Will to lay down in the bed to get some rest. Nico could feel the life slipping out of him with a single touch.

At one point, he left the Underworld solely to retrieve some surface-world food for Will, hoping that maybe,  _ just maybe, _ it would be enough to keep Will alive just a little bit longer. When he returned with it, he noticed first that Will hadn’t even turned a page in the book he was reading, despite the fact that Nico had been gone for over an hour, and he seemed to have no interest at all in the food that Nico had brought him.

At the end of his month, Nico had to practically carry his boyfriend back to the surface with him, and only after a solid week asleep did Will finally wake and eat a single apple. 

Nico knew that there was nothing that could keep Will alive as long as he deserved to be. There was nothing that could even preserve his life past his mid-thirties, the only possibility being that Will stop returning to the Underworld altogether, though Nico knew that his father would never allow that. 

He hated seeing his boyfriend in such a tortured state, but even the King of Ghosts couldn’t prevent Will from turning into one himself. 

 

* * *

 

The day that Will graduated from medical school was the first day in years that he looked like his regular self. He was glowing in the sun, and Nico hadn’t seen him look so happy since they left for their date the day that Will had gotten himself cursed. 

They went out for a celebratory dinner, something they couldn’t really afford on Nico’s not-really-a-salary, but something that they desperately needed and that Will definitely deserved. 

Halfway through the salad course, Will announced, “I was invited to join a few different residencies at some of the hospitals nearby.”

Normally, Nico couldn’t have been happier, but after the state he’d seen Will in for the last few years, he couldn’t help but feel like he’d swallowed a rock. “What if you take a year off, instead?”

Will frowned, obviously trying not to look angry. “Why would I do that?”

Nico ducked his head and stabbed at his salad with his fork. “I just think you should take a break, is all.”

“I can’t just  _ stop _ after I  _ just _ got my degree, Nico,” Will reminded him, like he’d done so many times before. “I’m a  _ doctor _ now, I finally get to help people!”

“I know,” Nico said quietly, “but I’m trying to help  _ you. _ You’ve been so stressed out and tired since you’ve been...visiting Dad so much. I’m not trying to crush your dreams or anything, I just want you to think about yourself for a second before you jump into something this big.”

Will reached across the table and set a hand over Nico’s. “I’m not jumping into anything right this second. I’m still...visiting your father next month, and I’m gonna use that time to pick which residency I’ll be joining.  _ Then _ I’m gonna jump into it.”

“But you’re not taking any time to  _ rest,” _ Nico argued. “You’re not in good shape, Will! You’re going to  _ die _ if you don’t slow down, don’t you  _ get that? _ I just want to be able to spend some time with you like you are now - happy and energetic and  _ you _ \- before you get the life sucked out of you in July. I want you to take a break so that you can finally recharge so that maybe you  _ won’t  _ die before you’re thirty-five, because I  _ love you _ and I want to have a  _ life _ with you, not this half-life that you’ve been living because you’re wearing yourself down faster than you can build yourself back up again.  _ Maybe _ if you would just relax for a minute and let me take care of you, then you’ll actually have the time to do something with your new medical license, rather than work for a few years before you drop dead in the middle of some hospital.”

Nico took a few gasping breaths, trying to catch up with himself and realizing what he’d just said when Will started to pull his hand away. 

“I’m a doctor now, Nico,” Will said again, calm and collected, though Nico could see the anger behind his eyes. “I’m going to  _ help _ people, and I know how to take care of myself. I’m joining a residency as soon as I can in August, and after that I’m going to get hired by a hospital, or I’ll get a fellowship somewhere else, because I’m  _ fine. _ I’m not  _ tired _ or  _ worn down, _ I’m twenty-six and I’ve got my whole life ahead of me. I want you to be there with me for this, but I’m not gonna let you stand in the way of me truly becoming a doctor like I’ve always wanted. So, I’m gonna say it one more time: I’m  _ fine.” _


	2. Reprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy last day of solangelo week!! it's been a great time yall and now i'd like to apologize for what youre about to read!! youre gonna cry, and not just because solangelo week is over, but because i'm a monster! i hope you enjoy it and dont hate me too bad after its over!!

On the first day of Will’s second year in residency, he collapsed in the middle of the emergency room. He was diagnosed with severe exhaustion and dehydration and prescribed bed rest and a lot of fluids. 

He woke up in his own private room, groggy and disoriented, with a clearly upset Nico sitting at his bedside. 

“How are you feeling?” Nico asked, irritation evident in his voice. 

“Tired,” Will croaked.

“I told you so,” Nico said, and Will rolled his head to the side to look at him, though he didn’t respond.  _ “I told you _ this would happen,” Nico continued, voice rising in volume. “I told you that if you didn’t slow down, then something like this would happen. Do you get it now? Do you  _ get _ that you’re  _ killing yourself _ and that it’s time to quit whatever stupid game you’re playing? Just--” Nico sighed and grabbed one of Will’s hands between his, pressing his lips to his knuckles before he whispered, “Just come home with me. Come home, and we can stay in bed for a few days, and after that we can...we can do anything, whatever you want. We can travel all over the world, or we can find some...some volunteer work somewhere to keep us busy. We could get a dog or a cat, or become temporary foster parents, Will, we could have a  _ family.” _

“Being a doctor is my  _ dream,” _ Will told him. “I’m not giving up on my dream.”

“So take a break instead,” Nico argued. 

“I’ll take as long as I need to recover,” Will shot back. “As soon as I’m cleared, I’m coming back to work.”

They stared each other down in silence, daring the other to say anything more. Nico felt his chest constricting more and more with every breath, and his eyes began to sting with forming tears. He broke eye contact and stood up abruptly, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jacket - it was times like this that he most missed his oversized bomber.

“Fine,” he croaked, and he left the room. 

He barely made it five feet from the door before he broke down, collapsing and sobbing into his hands. 

 

* * *

 

They were twenty eight when Will spent his last one month in the Underworld. He seemed to finally be taking Nico’s advice to rest and relax and spend time with his boyfriend of over ten years. They would have lazy mornings in bed and take romantic walks through Persephone’s gardens (and Will had long gotten over whatever he’d had about having sex in Hell). They were  _ happy _ again, happy like they were teenagers again, before Will had eaten that pomegranate seed and doomed his own life. 

They were  _ so incredibly happy, _ except for the times that they weren’t. 

Whenever Nico brought up even the possibility that Will stop doing surgery or even take the shortest of breaks, it was like something in Will snapped. They would argue for entire days and end up sleeping in separate rooms. They would scream at each other until one of them would leave the room to avoid saying something they would regret. 

One minute they would be talking about the idea of getting married. The next would end with a slamming door and objects thrown at the wall out of anger. 

It was near the end of the month that Nico reminded Will that he should take it easy when he returned to work, so that he wouldn’t collapse on the job again. Of course, since it was a sensitive subject, Will’s frustration with his boyfriend spiked once again.

“I’ll be fine,” he said, trying to keep his cool.

“Maybe, but you know how tired you usually are after being here for so long,” Nico argued. “You’re not as healthy as your coworkers, and you might not be able to keep up with them--”

“I’m  _ fine,”  _ Will shouted, rising to his feet and stepping closer to get in Nico’s face. “I’m  _ perfectly healthy. _ And when we get back home, I’m gonna  _ show you _ how healthy I am, got it? I’ve got a long life ahead of me. I have a ring for you at home, hidden in my sock drawer, because I  _ know _ I am going to live long enough to marry you.”

Will’s words were like a knife stabbing into Nico’s back. He knew Will didn’t have much time left. His estimation of mid-thirties was going to fall short; Will would be lucky to see the new year. 

Nico folded his arms across his chest and dropped his gaze from Will’s eyes. “I’d say yes,” Nico said softly, but his gaze hardened.  _ “If _ you lived that long, I’d say yes, but I’m not stupid.” He turned away, walking toward the door, but stopped before he left the room. “I’ll ask Alecto to take you home in a few days. Don’t expect me to be there waiting for you.”

And he walked out.

 

He couldn’t bare to return to the surface for more than a few hours - the risk of seeing Will was too high. He asked his father for errands to run instead, to keep his mind busy, and when he sensed that it was time, he shadow traveled into their apartment - uncleaned, since Will never had the time or energy to bother with organizing - and dug around in Will’s sock drawer until the found the ring box.

Will didn’t make it back to the apartment that night.

One second, he was at work, running toward the ambulance bay to intercept an incoming trauma. And the next he was kneeling at the foot of Hades’s throne, feeling lighter and stronger and more relaxed than he’d ever remembered feeling. 

“You’re an idiot,” Hades called down to him, and Will glanced up to see the god towering over him, probably intending to look more intimidating than usual. “I do not understand what my son sees in a child of Apollo, especially one as stupid as you. However, I love my son, and he has loved you, so I supposed I can tolerate an eternity with you, if that is what Nico chooses. If he welcomes you back, then you may spend your afterlife with him in the Palace.”

“Thank you, Lord Hades,” Will said, bowing his head again. “Um, is he here, somewhere?”

“In his chambers, waiting for you,” Hades answered, and so Will got up and left.

He tried forming his apology in his head as he walked down the long halls to Nico’s room, but there was too much to say and his thoughts kept getting jumbled. What could he even say to get Nico to take him back? Why would Nico  _ want  _ him back, after the things he’d said and done?

He walked up to Nico’s door without a single coherent thought in his head, but he knocked on the door anyway, opening it once he heard a response from within.

Nico was sitting on the bed, hands stuffed in his jacket pockets, gaze locked on the floor, darker-than-usual circles under his eyes.

Will walked forward and dropped to his knees in front of Nico. “I’m so sorry,” Will started, and his composure broke instantly. “You were right, and I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you. I was so focused on being a good doctor that I neglected you and only thought about myself, and--  _ Shit, _ Nico, I’m  _ so sorry.” _ He choked out a sob, furiously trying to wipe away his own tears before they splashed against the tiled floor. “I’m such an idiot, I should have been there for you, I’ve been acting so stupid for so long. I don’t deserve you, and...and you don’t deserve someone like me, and I know that, but-- I know now how wrong I was for the last...however many years, and I know I don’t deserve another chance, but please, give me a second chance. Or third, or fiftieth, or however many,  _ just one more. _ I don’t want to spend another second without you, and I want to make up for how shitty I’ve been. I love you, Nico, I love you  _ so much, _ please forgive me.”

Nico stood up, and Will had to dry his tears to see that Nico was holding out a ring box - the same one that Will had had in his sock drawer. That was Nico’s ring, and he was giving it back. Will felt his heart break all over again.

He reached up with a shaky hand and took the box from Nico. “That’s...a no, then. Huh. I...don’t know if I was expecting that, or not.”

“No, stupid,” Nico said, and Will  _ did _ expect the anger in his voice. “You’re already on your knees, so I’m telling you to put that ring to good use.”

“You want me to…? You mean, you’re not mad at me?”

“I’m pissed at you,” Nico clarified, “but I’ve always loved you more than I could ever manage to hate you, so are you going to ask, or not?”

Will blinked up at him a few times, then glanced down at the ring box. He cracked it open slowly, presenting the ring, and said, “Nico di Angelo, will you spend an eternity in Hell with me?”

Nico lowered himself to his knees and cupped Will’s face in his hands before pulling him in for the softest, sweetest kiss. “Of course, Sunshine.”

Will let out another sob as fresh tears started to fall and he collapsed forward into Nico’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around his fiance’s waist.

“I missed you so much,” Nico whispered into his ear, allowing a few of his own tears to fall as he stroked Will’s hair. “I love you, you big idiot.”

Will pulled back and leaned his forehead against Nico’s. “I’m gonna make it up to you, for everything. I’m going to spend the rest of eternity making you as happy as I possibly can. I’m gonna give you the greatest wedding the Underworld has seen since Hades and Persephone’s.  _ Anything you want, _ just say the word.”

Nico smiled, and it felt so much easier than it had in so long. “All I need is you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading, and i hope you enjoyed solangelo week!! check out the solangelo week collection and @solangeloweek on tumblr to see everyone else's great work from the past week!!

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! see you for the rest of solangelo week!!


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